Kia Ora, Ni Hao, Bula Vinaka, Malo e lelei, Kia Orana, Tālofa, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Bonjour, Xin Chao, and Kumusta Whānau,

Welcome to our fourth newsletter of Term 3 in 2026. Well, I think you will agree, it sure feels like spring has sprung! It is great to see that our learners’ drink bottles are being well used as the weather begins to warm up – hydration is an important factor in keeping energy levels up and our learning brains switched on!

Parish Connect Following on from the first Parish Kōrero theme of Belonging, the second theme that is currently being focused on is the Liturgy. Over the past few weeks at Masses, response forms have been available to have your say about what you value and appreciate, what you would like to see enhanced or developed and other ideas you have related to our Parish celebration of Liturgy. You will also see a display in our Parish Church foyer related to this theme. I encourage all of you to have your say!
Most recently, Fr Terry has restarted our weekly parish news-filled email. One of the features of this email is a link to see Fr Terry reading the upcoming Sunday’s Gospel. Taking a minute or two to watch and listen to Fr Terry read the gospel before Sunday’s Mass is a great way of preparing well for the Mass, taking time to consider the meaning of the Gospel for your daily life, and setting yourself up well for a prayerful Mass experience. See below as usual for the link to this Sunday’s reading, and even better, follow the second link to see Fr Terry reading it. Thanks Fr Terry for helping us to be well prepared to celebrate Mass.
If you want to join Fr Terry’s mailing list please follow this link to the parish website where you will be able to join the Parish mailing list.

Please follow this link for this Sunday’s readings to read and discuss as a family. Watch Fr Terry read last Sunday’s Gospel here.

Next week is Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Māori Language Week The theme for this year is Ake, Ake, Ake – A Forever Language. We will gather in liturgy and celebration on Monday morning under the COLA instead of the hall to begin the week, with our Kapa Haka Rōpu opening the week which will be filled with the richness of Te Reo Māori waiata and activity. Our library catalogue home page which is accessible from the library tab on our school website, has been updated reflecting this special week in our annual calendar, with lots of stories, pronunciation activities and quizzes galore – enjoy!

Next week is also our ART Festival Week For the first time in a long time, we are hosting a community Art Festival. Historically, our school held art festivals every fourth year, between team productions, however COVID demanded a pause on all such activities, and our reset began with the sharing of the Arts Curriculum through our productions. Therefore it has taken until 2026 to reconnect with our Art Festival with its focus on the Visual Arts. Each child has been busy creating multiple pieces for the festival. You are welcome to browse the festival on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings between 3pm and 7pm. Our learners are very proud of the art they have produced and cannot wait to share it with you all.

Caritas Challenge and Mufti Day supporting Nepal Today was a great day of learning for our students. Our annual Caritas Challenge focused on water. Through various challenges across each year level, our young learners discovered the reality of the scarcity of clean water following a natural disaster such as the recent flooding in Nepal, and the importance of water conservation in order to complete everyday actions in order to be healthy and well. Thanks to your generosity, we filled our message of hope; HELP NEPAL, with money and raised $1164.50.  An incredible response from our community in service and support of those in need – true Christian Witness in action!

The Kids Sing Massed Choir Event On Monday evening, our senior choir participated in the New Zealand Choral Federation’s The Kids Sing Festival. Our choir was one of 16 schools who came together at the Auckland Town Hall for this inaugural event, and what an event it was! Close to 600 singers performing 7 items as a massed choir, with guest choirs also performing. We couldn’t have done this without the amazing work of Melody Collings our choir teacher. She prepared our choral singers so well, and it was great to see them contribute to this massed singing event.

Fathers Day Liturgy Last Friday morning our hall was filled with fathers, uncles, grandfathers, Godfathers and other father-like figures of importance in the lives of our learners. It was a lovely opportunity to reflect on and acknowledge the important role of father and father-like figures in our lives and the impact of these role models of Christian faith and virtues. God bless you all for all you do for our young learners! Room 21 hosted our liturgy so well with thanks to Mrs Bailey and Mrs Holt. Our Junior choir was a feature of this gathering and entertained us all so well, with thanks to Belen Shum and Kenneth Chan our choir directors.

Twilight Market Update Keep those second hand toys and book collections rolling in!! I am looking forward to hosting the student who sells the most Twilight Market Raffle tickets as Principal For The Day on the last day of term – we have lots of great experiences planned for that day! Read later in the newsletter for an update on our planning. Use this link to sign up to help on the night – many hands make light work – we are looking forward to a great community event and fundraiser with your support!

Looking Back Read later in the newsletter about the success of our Mandarin Speech Competition last week. Read also about the HPPA Literacy Quiz and how our team did. We have some great recounts of the senior schools trips to Motat for you to enjoy. You will be impressed later in the newsletter with the outcome of huge efforts from our netball team at this week’s HPPA Zone Netball competition with thanks to Alina Hooper who managed the team on the day and all the parents and grandparents who went along to cheer on the team. You will also be impressed with the outcome of the Our Lady Star of the Sea Cross Country representatives who competed so strongly at yesterday’s Catholic Schools Cross Country. Results and image are also later in the newsletter, with special congratulations to Anya O’Meara who placed first and Tillie Koloamatangi who placed second in the Year 4 Girls race and Amelia Davies who came second among the Year 6 Girls. With thanks to Denise Bailey and Tracey Elder who looked after our team on the day.

Looking Ahead 
Our Lady Star of the Sea Art Festival As mentioned above, next week we are looking forward to holding our Art Exhibition where the children will be able to share their artistic talents.  We look forward to seeing you all there. We wish our Kapa Haka Rōpu well as they perform at the Bruce McLaren Retirment Village next Monday for Maori Language Week. We send Tyler Chiang on his way to represent us at the HPPA Mandarin Speech Competition next Thursday with all our care and prayers – good luck Tyler! Next Friday we are very much looking forward to having Drew Lane, the creator of many of the religious songs we use at school, who will run workshops and a concert at school.
The following week our Kapa Haka Rōpu are looking forward to participating in our Local Catholic Schools Kapa Haka Experience at Sancta Maria College. We look forward to celebrating Mercy Day next Thursday with liturgy. The Mercy Charism of hospitality will be brought to life with tea and coffee for parents who arrive from 2.30pm to pick their children up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of that week. We look forward to having a cup of tea and a chat! Our last day of term sees Barbier house assembly and the Twilight Market Raffle Ticket selling Winner being Principal for the Day.

I wish you a safe and blessed fortnight ahead, until we next share news and updates from our beautiful school in our next school newsletter.

Arohanui, Zhù hǎo, ‘Ofa lahi atu,  Tōfa soifua, Cordialement, Loloma levu, Fakaue lahi, 안부 인사를 전합니다 , salamat po

Louise Campbell
Tumuaki/Principal

Encounter with Christ:
Australian singer and songwriter Drew Lane is coming to us!  Drew is an  accomplished musician, sound engineer and a performing arts teacher of nearly 30 years. He has written many original musicals for primary schools,  is currently a performing arts teacher at St John Vianney’s in Parkdale, Victoria, Australia and was for several years a lecturer in Performing Arts at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.  Drew will be working with classes  Friday 18 September. His visit will culminate with a concert in the school hall, 1:30pm. You are all welcome to attend.

Growth in Knowledge:
Religious art shows holy stories, important leaders, and deep beliefs using pictures instead of just words. Stained glass windows are used to tell stories from the Bible. Statues and carved figures remind people to pray and spend time with God. Religious paintings and icons help us to feel closer to God. In our upcoming Art Festival, students have created different religious art forms to showcase these things. 

Christian Witness:
Thursday September 24 is Mercy Day. It is the day we remember Catherine McAuley opening the House of Mercy in Ireland and dedicated it to Our Lady of Mercy. Practising Mercy is a call to action. The choice to be merciful expresses itself in peace and justice. Mercy goes hand in hand with self-dignity, respect for the dignity of others and a willingness to promote just social structures which celebrate the dignity of all. Catholic Social Teaching in action! Catherine McAuley, the Mercy Sister’s foundress, and Cecilia Maher, one of the first Mercy Sisters to arrive in Aotearoa New Zealand, are house patrons at our school. The Mercy sisters worked at Our Lady Star of the Sea school for 55 years.  Classes will be involved in acts of service around the school and within the local community during the week. This is another way we can respond as Jesus would. You might like to commit to an act of Mercy as a family. 

“We are a Christ centred community fostering belonging (whanaungatanga)
and outreach through selfless giving (manaakitanga)
in Mary’s Way”.

There are plenty of community messages to explore! Click the arrows to view all notices.

As a Mitey school we are proud to support Mitey in its goal to reach even more schools across Aotearoa. Mitey is calling on schools and tamariki across Aotearoa to get behind the Mitey Drive for Five.